Microsoft unveils Windows Terminal, a new command line app for Windows

For developers, developers, developers

byTom Warren

May 6, 2019, 3:30 PM UTC

Tom Warren

is a senior editor and author ofNotepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years.

Microsoft is launching a new command line app for Windows, dubbed Windows Terminal. It’s designed to be the central location for access to environments like PowerShell, Cmd, and the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Microsoft is adding multiple tab support alongside theming and customization for developers who want to tweak the Terminal app.

Windows Terminal will also support emoji and GPU-based text rendering. This text rendering is DirectX-based, and it will display text characters, glyphs, and symbols that are available on your PC including CJK ideograms, emoji, powerline symbols, icons, and programming ligatures. Microsoft unveiled the new Windows Terminal app during the company’s Build developer conference today. The software giant is planning to make it available in mid-June, and it marks Microsoft’s latest efforts to improve the developer environment on Windows 10.

The Windows Terminal will also be fully customizable with profiles. You’ll be able to create multiple profiles for each app, shell, or tool that you import into Windows Terminal. That can be PowerShell, cmd prompt, SSH, or Ubuntu. Each profile can have its own color theme, background blur level, font style, and size. It’s a lot of customization to make the Windows Terminal work for most devs.

Microsoft also previously added theLinux command line to Windows 10 alongside adding native OpenSSH to the operating system and even listingUbuntu in the Windows Store. While the new Windows Terminal will be available next month, Microsoft hasposted the source code to GitHub. That means you can build a copy of Windows Terminal and use the app a little early before it’s available in the Windows Store.

Update May 7th, 10AM ET: Article updated with links to the GitHub Windows Terminal download.

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